journal swap

my self and a few friends are starting a journal swap......never done one of these before and i have to say i'm a bit worried about producing work in other people's books.....but you don't know till you've tried something!!!
 we were each made a book to work in-i chose to have a book 4x6.....very different size to work in for me!!!

i saw a project in craft stamper by jaine drake in which she used bits and pieces on a page to give texture and fancied having a go at that so used the technique on the covers of my book.

so i went through my chipboard box and ribbon stash and chose a few bits. i tried painting them with white gesso but it just wasn't covering so i had to use white acrylic paint-which only took one coat.

then i added a bit of colour and stamped onto white tissue with a script stamp which was then put onto the butterflies.........not really sure if i like it or not but it was fun trying something different :)

blue christmas.

mikes wanting a blue tree this year.......we have a beautiful white tree thats pre-lit with white lights and each year i put white and silver on it with one colour.....mike has these blue LED lights that i'm really not fond of LOL and this year he's insisting on a blue tree......i don't have anything blue so i've made a start-except these haven't turned out as blue as i thought they would!! these rather lovely stars are from tando.....i painted them a light blue (took an hour!!) then i sponged some glue onto them and put some gilding flakes on them-this is where it all went different than i thought it would-think i sponged too much glue on because you can't really see much of the blue LOL. then i put a few little gems onto them.....and,yes,i did do both sides:)

home sweet home

yesterday i was determined to do something crafty and have something to show at the end of the day........it did mean that i had to turn the computer off though......sorry girls,i love you,but you clearly are a distraction LOL xx i took one of di's home sweet home plaques on the retreat with me but never got round to doing it...... yesterday i finished it-yay:)

for my daddy!!!

a few bracelets

made a few bracelets yesterday-nothing very exciting-just simple ones!! the cross one with clear beads is for mum,the cross one with 'pearls' is for me (or i might give that to mum too!) and the shambella is for the girl mike works with-she asked for this colour combo:)

shambella bracelets.

leigh showed us how to make these while at the retreat in may this year-i finally got round to getting some decent beads and cord to have a go at home......the white one is for kerry-lousie and shannon's wanting a pink one..........the other's are mine LOL

sally's birthday meal........

one of both our families mutal friends (i've know them since i was knee high to a grass hopper!!) decided it was a good idea to go to a wine bar with an a la carte menu.....think he forgot it was for sally's birthday coz she really doesn't do that sort of thing at all!! mike and i (and from the faces i could see sally pulling) weren't overly impressed with it all!!! although the dishes were presented nicely :) we were told that this is a amuse-bouche....this confused us a little......we don't get out much LOL

this is my starter-beetroot risotto with goats cheese.....was expecting chunks of beetroot! it was only just warm and tasted like sweet rice pudding!!! the goats cheese was nice though:)

this was mikes starter....king scallops on black pudding....strange texture aren't they!!! the black pudding was nice:)

this was my main......the menu was full of fish and 2 different steaks,venison and 1 veggie option-i thought i'd play safe and pick the veggie option......vegetables with a puff pastry top......think they must've used the same pan as one of the fish dishes coz my veg tasted like fish:(

mikes main.......venison......think i should've gone with that!!!! was the nicest thing on the table that night!!

company was good though :)

sally's birthday card

i seem to have negleated my blog for a while.....i'm blaming the fact that i've been showing stuff on FB!!! it's my MIL's birthday on tuesday-she'll be 70. i really struggled to do this card and had no idea what to do. mike said 'just make mum a card-forget it's her 70th!' so i decided to go with green since that's her favorite colour and i thought i might do an easel card since i've not done one of those before......this is what i came up with....mike thought it best not to put her age on it!!!

*when did blogger change! don't think i like it!!!*

bead and button bracelet

I've been wanting to have a go at one of these for a long time......it's Georgie's birthday at work 2 days after mine so i thought i'd make her one.......i've seen her wearing this sort of thing in the past so i hope she likes this one!
have to say-i'm rather pleased with it:)

card catch up!!!

i've made a few cards lately and thought i'd show you!!

the 1st one is mum's mother's day card......



isaac's 4th birthday card.........



pretty sure i sent this one to karen LOL





this was mum's birthday card......





and this one is ready to send to someone!!....

bit of beading........

last week mum and i spend a day doing some beading....
i made a very beady bracelet-each of the beads are on a head pin with a wrapped end-this is the end that was threaded onto the elastic,i made 100 of these!!



the brown necklace was going to be a pair of earrings but once i finished the first on i thought it was too big for me to wear since i have short hair -so i made it into a pendant:)......mum has longer hair and she made some in silver and they look fine on her!

365 catch up!!

got a bit behind with these.......
17 was naughty....the cake fridge at work-to say we're a small place it's amazing how many cakes we go through-people round here really are naughty!!!



18-pleasurable.....my darling hubby-he's very pleasuable ;)



19-bad for you......this is work-what more can i say LOL (for some reason this picture just wont go the right way round!!!)



20-sign.....even though this sign is quite big and very bright it's amazing how many people trip up and fall down the step-i do a little laugh inside everytime LOL

all covered.

i started my art journal last year with milliande and thought it was about time i decorated the cover!!
i had intended to use some decopatch papers that were left over from doing letter's with leigh at last years retreat-i tried it but the papers and glue just peeled of,so then i turned to acrylic paints because in my experience they stick to anything!!
i started with a gesso base.....



then i used eco-friendly paints in tomato red,pomegranate and ocean. then dry brush some white gesso over them. i used a foam swirly stamp in the corner and white rub on letters,which i then drew round in black and put some dots on the letters. as you can see i've got 2 front covers-this is because i don't work in order in my book-i just pick it up and open it which ever way it is:)



for the edges i got some cream broderie anglaise and sprayed it with adirondack color wash spray in cranberry and then stamped with a script stamp and black memento ink,then used some fancy yarn to stitch it onto the cover (i'd made the hole for stitching with an awl before i started painting it!)

16-snack

i seem to have missed a few of suzie's prompts (!) -sorry suzie xx
so.....yesterday's was 'snack'......mine was a curlywurly (which is only 3 points and i had enough to be able to have it :) )

13-inside your fridge

on 13th january suzie wanted to see what was in our fridge-i was a little worried about this-thought she was spying on me and reporting back to my WW leader LOL
lucky i did a sensible shop this week then isn't it LOL

12!!

'transparent'
this is a picture taken out of the window at work before i wiped the condenstation off it.......and before anyone saw that i had my phone out at work LOL

10+11 !!!

suzie's prompt for 10 was 'metallic'
my photo is of my hoover pipe!! not much to say about that really is there !!!



prompt 11 was 'an item of clothing'
mine is a photo of a scarve i brought way back when i was about 13 years old!!! i brought it when we lived in germany and they were all the rage-even the boys wore them.....it's very thin now and doesn't give much protection from the weather but i wear it round the house when it's a little chilly! as you can see it's well worn and has a hole in it and somewhere along the line one corner has been bleached!.....i love this scarve:)

8+9 !!

prompt 8 from suzie was 'cosy'
this is poppy,she was all cosy on our bed but heard me coming and looked up!




prompt 9 was 'water'
this is a picture of a filtration system for our marine tank.....it in effect doubles the size of the tank and therefore doubles the amount of water and is easier to filter (or something like that!) mike did this just after christmas.....pretty isn't it LOL (good job i'm not house proud LOL)

7-drink

today's 365+1 prompt is 'drink'
i started out thinking i'd try and get a picture of bella (my bunny!) drinking coz she looks sooo cute when she's drinking,but then i went back to a journal page i started yesterday!!........it fits in with todays prompt,so here it is:)
incase you can't read it,the quote says 'thank god for tea!what would the world do without tea! how did it exist? i am glad i was not born before tea!' by william gladstone........the writing along the teabags says 'i counted all the tea i drank one day-10 cups with milk & 2 ealy greys!'

6-frost

my 'frost' picture is de-FROST-ing chicken ready for wraps tonight:)

5-excitment

suzie's prompt for yesterday was 'excitment'
my picture is of my weight watchers journal-i brought it at my meeting on tuesday night having just found out i put on 6lb over christmas and new year!!!! the excitment in this little book is the fact that i'm starting again with writing down everything that i eat!!! i hoping to have lost something when i go get weighed in on tuesday!!! (lets hope the photo stays upright today!!)

4-pretty

suzies prompt today is 'pretty'
this our tree this yesterda-my youngest girl decorated it on her own for the 1st time this year and he was well impressed with it :)
i'm taking it down in a minute :(



rofl.....have no idea why it's on it's head LOL